In the coverage of the London bombings, I noticed that the British say "to hospital." In American English, we say "to school" more often than "to the school," but we tend to retain the "the" in "to the hospital." What is at work here?

Just a few hours ago, I had to make several decisions in Swedish whether to use the definite or indefinite form in translating. I think that I more often than my fellow man (sorry, 'fellow person') use the indefinite form when not refering to a very specific instance but more to a general sort of thing.

One reason might be that I want to have the reader of the manual in question think independently and in a more general manner than just that single case that is the immediate concern.

I'm quite sure, though, that it is impossible for me to state a hard and fast rule on when I use one or the other.

Adressing the OP, I suppose that the Britishers were more concerned with that the persons really were brought to (a) hospital, than with inferring that they arrived at any specific one.

I agree with Tim that to school, in school, and at school imply that one is attending classes. To the school, in the school, and at the school imply that one is at a particular school/building.

Telephone conversations:

"May I speak with Sarah?""No, she's at school right now." ==> Implies that Sarah is in class, either learning or teaching or doing some other work. This is similar to "No, she's at work right now."

"May I speak with Sarah?""No she's up at the school right now." ==> Implies that Sarah is somewhere on the school grounds. She could be playing or coaching a sport, in an after-school club, attending a parent-teacher conference or other meeting, or, like my fool wife, doing some non-paid work on a weekend, such as putting up a new bulletin board, because they won't give her time to do it during the week.

Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." -- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Tim, what would happen if, mutatis mutandi, you replaced «school» in your examples above with «hospital» ? I think hcbowman is quite right in suspecting that what we see here are dialectal differences between standard speech in the US and the UK, respectively. A person in the UK who's suffered a heart infarct and not yet been discharged is still «in hospital», whereas a person in the same situation in the US is still «in the hospital». «School», however, can be used without the article in both places - interestingly enough, an attribute it shares with «prison»....

A person in the UK who's suffered a heart infarct and not yet been discharged is still «in hospital», whereas a person in the same situation in the US is still «in the hospital».

Here, I realized that I would be more likely to say "hospitalized" or "being hospitalized".

But my frame of reference may be circumspect here. I used to work at a hospital and knew other people who worked at the hospital, so "in the hospital" meant something entirely different than "being hospitalized" for those people.

carolene wrote:I've noticed people recently saying "go to prom" instead of "go to the prom" as I've always heard it...

Welcome to the Agora, carolene - and thanks for forwarding your very interesting observation ! Have you noticed any geographic or social distinctions between those you've heard say «go to prom» and those who say «go to the prom» ?...